I was about to summon Cygnus, Aquila and Pegasus to help fery the four of us from Jing Tian City to Troy (both the city and my friend himself), but unexpectedly a huge truck pulled up before us. It was a military-styled five-tonner, the kind I used to see back when I was serving mandatory national service in my previous life.

Except that it had hover-jets instead of wheels…because, well, this was one thousand years into the future, and people love hover-vehicles in futuristic sci-fi settings.

A lady in the pa.s.senger seat poked her head out of the window and waved at us.

"You guys are Troy's friends, aren't you?" she called out. "Hop on! We're gong to Troy City right now!"

"Kureha?" my jaw dropped when I realized that I recognized the fair-haired girl. The Sword Saint of the Franklin family waved in a friendly manner.

"The one and only," she joked. Somehow I doubted it, for I knew of mages stronger than her, but she was certainly among the most elite in our generation.

"Miss Kureha?" Harrison bowed his head humbly. "It's an honor."

"Yeah, yeah. Now get on. We don't have time to waste."

While we scrambled onto the back of the truck and strapped ourselves with the seatbelts on the bench, Dong Fang Yue Chu couldn't help but ask.

"Eh? You know what's going on?"

"We received Troy's request for help," Kureha replied, her head still sticking out of the window. For now. The moment we took off, she was going to pull back in. "I owe him a favor, so I'm paying back my debt. We're gathering whatever forces we can to help him! The Federation military is also mobilizing an entire regiment to evacuate the city."

"Not put down the monsters there?" Harrison asked. Kureha shook her head, then raised her smartphone, which displayed a small holographic screen.

"You've read the mission directives, right? There are way too much to try and exterminate. We're doing a hard contain, and then we're going to sterilize the area with a strategic-scale spell."

She glanced at me at that last sentence, and then withdrew back into the pa.s.senger compartment.

"Well, that's quite the change," Theodore remarked, puzzled. "Normally the military would do their best to exterminate the monsters and preserve as much of the city as possible, like what they did with our Jing Tian City."

"That virus thing must have scared them more than we realized," Harrison agreed.

"Eh? What virus thing?" Yue Chu shuddered. "Doesn't that mean we'll all get infected?"

"Reading the briefing, it seems that humans aren't affected by the virus. It's not airborne anyway, it's something that's fed directly into the monsters, something for them to ingest. Or inject directly into their blood circulatory system. But it doesn't affect humans, for one reason or another…meaning it's an engineered virus."

"It's manufactured by Tyrant King and the Dark Church," I confirmed, recalling what Troy had told me. Harrison nodded gratefully.

"Yeah. And it seems there are no…harmful effects, even if it does affect humans. It causes a significant boost in magic power and physical strength. It allows low-ranking monsters to evolve. The worry is that if these monsters escape, they'll spread the virus…especially if they get ingested by high-ranking monsters."

"Seems like the Porter family has mobilized to take care of the Lake of Rage," Theodore noted, consulting his own holographic screen. I scrolled through my smartphone and caught sight of the news.

"Hmm, interesting." This time, they had hired the h.e.l.l Hounds instead of the Silver Wolves, another well-known mercenary unit in the Inner Sphere…I mean the Federation. They had already left for the Lake of Rage earlier, preparing to quarantine it and exterminate the monsters there. There was a single statement talking about how the Holy Maiden and daughter of the Porter clan was personally partic.i.p.ating in the mission.

In other words, Lilith. Well, she had Kagutsuchi, so I had no doubt she would be able to turn the lake into a boiling cauldron and incinerate the poor monsters dwelling within it. She just needed the mercenaries to buy her enough time to distract the rank A monsters and keep them at bay.

…yeah, easier said than done. Given how powerful a single rank A monster was, never mind an entire horde, I didn't know how those poor mercenaries were going to pull it off. A single rank A monster was enough to annihilate a whole city on its own, and now we have an entire swarm to deal with! The good news was that the rank A Gyaragons were too busily fighting and tearing into each other to bother with the puny humans.

Apparently, whatever virus had triggered their evolution had driven them insane, and caused them to descend into a murderous frenzy. They were killing each other, bathing the once clear waters of the lake red with their blood. According to the video I was watching, anyway. Perhaps the mercenaries and Lilith would be able to make use of that. Furthermore, given how they were only just recently evolved, they probably had no idea how to make full use of their new abilities and magic. Yet.

Meaning now was the best time to slaughter the whole lot of them before they left the lake and endanger the whole of the Federation, or humanity…eventually.

Grimacing at the bloodbath, I was about to close the holographic video when I received another incoming call.

"Antonia?"

It was Troy's girlfriend. She was looking extremely worried, sweat plastered across her pale face.

"Richard? Thank G.o.d…I finally got through."

What do you mean, finally got through? I didn't block any calls or switch off my phone. I was pretty sure this was her first attempt to contact me, but I obviously couldn't be bothered to argue, so I nodded.

"What's up?"

"Did you receive the news regarding Troy?"

I nodded. "Yeah, we're going over to reinforce him now."

"Thank G.o.d!" Antonia was almost weeping in relief. "Thank you so much…please…please, I'm begging you, bring Troy back. I know he is extremely strong, but…he has been so reckless recently. Especially when it comes to his brother. Please…make sure you bring him back alive."

"I'll do my best," I told her. "That's why we're all going there now."

Antonia straightened up and nodded. "Yeah, you too. Make sure you don't put yourself in danger as well. I've heard a lot about Tyrant, and…" she swallowed. "He terrifies me. Troy has convinced himself that he has to stop his brother at all costs, and I'm worried that he might do something stupid."

"Troy is smart. He won't…"

"So please…" Antonia cut me off. "When you reach him, hold him back for me. Bring him back to me safely. Okay?"

"I'll do my best." I took a deep breath and steeled myself. "We plan to all come back together, safe and sound. We still need Troy to partic.i.p.ate in the tournament with us…to lead our team to victory. We aren't going to let him die ignominiously in some random city that's named after him for some reason."

"Thank you." Antonia sighed in relief. "Not just Troy…I want all of you to return safely too, okay?"

"We'll do our best." I offered her an encouraging grin. "I'll let you know once we get back…or rather, I'll have Troy call you himself."

Antonia forced a smile. "I'll see you guys later then."

"Yeah. See you."

Switching off the video call, I raised my head to look at my friends. Harrison was already pondering deeply over a holographic map. Clearly he was coming up with some strategy. That was his department, not mine, so I was going to rely on him. That was what friends were for. I couldn't do everything by myself. I had my own role to play, and I was sure Harrison was considering what that role would be, along with those of Yue Chu's, Theodore's and his own.

"…so what's the plan, Harrison?"

He glanced up and smiled grimly.

"Not much, but this is what I have for now…"

*

As the famous Helmuth von Moltke the Elder once said, no battle plan survives contact with the enemy. Or more specifically, no plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force.

"!!"

The flying five-tonner truck suddenly veered off course when something blasted at it. From our vantage point, we could see a colossal beam of golden destructive energy piercing through the heavens. It originated from the gaping maw of one of the gargantuan Gyaragon that was now thras.h.i.+ng about in a lake near the city.

"Hyper Beam!" Harrison gasped. He was well aware of how destructive the attack was, able to pierce through several buildings and demolish them instantly. If that Hyper Beam spell had been unleashed within the city itself…

"Why does that name sound so familiar?" Theodore rumbled, scratching his head in puzzlement.

"Never heard of Sword and s.h.i.+eld, the latest iteration?" Yue Chu teased him, but the big guy still didn't get it. I didn't get the chance to break the fourth wall because one of the Gyaragon chose that moment to rear up and lunge at the flying truck.

A third Gyaragon released a highly pressurized torrent of water at us – I might as well drop all pretense and name it Hydro Pump – forcing the driver to desperately undertake evasive maneuvers.

"Buckle in, everyone!" Kureha's voice, magically amplified by a spell, emanated from the front compartment. "We're going to make a forced landing!"

"Try not to land too far away, we'll start preparing our spells." As always, Harrison was calm and collected, already planning ahead for the incoming engagement. I shared his concern. If the truck went out of control and crashed more than a hundred meters away from this position, our spells would be reset and we had to cast them from scratch all over again.

Against rank A Gyaragons, we would need our more advanced spells. Of course, it wasn't the end of the world if we didn't get to cast them. We just needed to delay them, but we might as well make use of whatever advantage we could get to make our lives easier.

"So much for landing in the city and immediately helping out with the evacuation, huh?" Yue Chu sounded bitter that we had to deviate from our original plan. Part of it was because we would have to complete the rest of the journey on foot while still being under fire from rank A Gyaragons. That also meant exhausting a significant amount of our mana before we even began our main mission.

"What happened to Lilith and the h.e.l.l Hounds?" I wondered out loud, feeling a little worry. They were supposed to be dealing with the Gyaragons. Did they already get wiped out? That couldn't be good.

As if to answer my question, a tremendous pillar of flames burst through the air, breaking through the heavens as if the Flame Emperor himself had arrived to unleash his essence fires or whatever. The truth was a bit more mundane (because we didn't want Tian Can Tu Dou to sue us) or more spectacular, depending on which side of the fence you were on. The ma.s.sive, white figure of Kagutsuchi reared up, flapping its gigantic wings of fire, and unleashed torrents of divine flames upon Gyaragon after Gyaragon, incinerating them.

Or trying to, anyway. Being rank A monsters, they were much more tenacious than other monsters. Despite Kagutsuchi's attempts, only one or two charred corpses of Gyaragon were floating motionlessly on the blood-red waters.

I watched the battle in awe from the exposed s.p.a.ce at the back of the truck. The gleaming blue serpentine water dragons writhed in a swarm, sending tsunamis splas.h.i.+ng across the sh.o.r.e as they reared up to bare their fangs at the kami of fire.

An entire swarm of Gyaragons.

I recognized the Behemoth-cla.s.s monsters. They were Gyaragons, colossal monsters notorious for their vicious tempers and merciless rampages. Able to wield the element of water, they were usually more famous for their signature attack, Hyper Beam. The single destructive beam of golden light that they fired from their jaws, which was capable of leveling a skysc.r.a.per – and the very same one that forced our driver to dodge earlier to avoid annihilation. They were cla.s.sified as dragons, their faces reminding me of the ancient oriental dragons that ruled the seas and called upon storms and thunder.

Roaring, one of the ferocious serpent-like Gyaragon reared its ma.s.sive head over the cras.h.i.+ng waves of the lake to glare at us. Another Hyper Beam surged toward us, but the driver banked hard to the right while ducking under another Gyaragon that snapped at us with its terrifying jaws. The driver wisely did not try to ram the Behemoth with his relatively unarmored truck. With sapphire scales as hard as steel and teeth that could crush boulders, a single Gyaragon was capable of demolis.h.i.+ng cities in a fit of rage.

And there were so many of them.

"Brace for impact!" the driver shouted. Even amidst the noise, and his words m.u.f.fled from behind the driver compartment, we could still somehow hear him. Magic, I suppose. In any event, the four of us maximized our physical reinforcement spells and steeled ourselves.

There was a crunching thud, and we were almost flung out of our seats. Fortunately, our seatbelts restrained us, fighting against the forces of gravity to ensure our safety. We crashed back against the cus.h.i.+oned seats, grunting, but didn't suffer any injury worse than a few bruises and maybe several sc.r.a.pes.

And just like that, the crash ended. As the truck skidded to a stop, no doubt gouging a large tunnel in its wake, the only sounds we could hear were our own breathing, and the blood rus.h.i.+ng in our ears. Calming our thumping hearts, the four of us looked at each other, wide-eyed, and then raised shaky hands to check for any injuries, and also to unfasten the seatbelts that had no doubt saved our lives. Even with physical reinforcement spells, we might have smashed our skulls if we were thrown about with such tremendous forces.

This is why, ladies and gentlemen, you should always fasten your seatbelts when traveling in a vehicle. They truly saved lives.

"Everyone okay?" Harrison asked hoa.r.s.ely. Too numb and shocked to speak, I nodded. This wasn't the first time I was in an accident – I remembered when the land rover I was a pa.s.senger in crashed when I was back in the military – and now the same numbing shock was spreading toward me. As if I couldn't believe what had just happened…my mind still unable to comprehend that I had just survived a crash. Everything was so detached, and I felt as if I was watching the whole event unfold from a separate, disembodied perspective.

Theodore and Yue Chu staggered from their seats, mumbling incoherent affirmations. The four of us then stumbled out of the tonner, vaulting over the hatch and landing on ruined soil. The truck had done quite a lot damage to the earth.

"You guys okay?" Kureha had already hopped out of the pa.s.senger seat, and she was helping the driver, who looked dazed. Blood was streaming down his forehead. Despite his seatbelt, he had been flung into his steering wheel, which explained his injury. Probably a bad concussion, but at least he was still alive.

If he hadn't strapped in, he would have literally flown through the winds.h.i.+eld and ended up a b.l.o.o.d.y pulp against one of the trees several dozen meters in front of the truck. Good thing our tonner didn't crash into those trees.

A roar drew our attention back to the present, reminding us that we basically did a hot drop into the middle of a battlefield. A blue Gyaragon had crawled up to our position, its maw yawning to unleash another devastating Hyper Beam in our direction…